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Geometrically Exact Finite Element Formulation for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots

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Abstract

Tendon-driven continuum robots achieve continuous deformations through the contraction of tendons embedded inside the robotic arms. For some continuum robots, the constant curvature assumption-based kinematic modeling can be accurate and effective. While for other cases, such as soft robots or robot-environment interactions, the constant curvature assumption can be inaccurate. To model the complex deformation of continuum robots, the geometrically exact beam theory (may also be called the Cosserat rod theory) has been used to develop computational mechanics models. Different from previous computational models that used finite difference schemes for the spatial discretization, here we develop a three-dimensional geometrically exact beam theory-based finite element model for tendon-driven continuum robots. Several numerical examples are presented to show the accuracy, efficiency, and applicability of our new computational model for tendon-driven continuum robots.

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Acknowledgements

H.Y. acknowledges the funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No. 12072143). J.L. acknowledges the funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No. 12172160). C.C. acknowledges the financial support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (ECCS-2024649).

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Author notes

  1. Xin Li and Wenkai Yu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Xin Li, Wenkai Yu, Mehdi Baghaee, Dunyu Chen, Ju Liu & Hongyan Yuan

  2. Laboratory for Soft Machines & Electronics, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Changyong Cao

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  1. Xin Li
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  2. Wenkai Yu
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Correspondence to Hongyan Yuan.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Li, X., Yu, W., Baghaee, M. et al. Geometrically Exact Finite Element Formulation for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots. Acta Mech. Solida Sin. 35, 552–570 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10338-022-00311-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10338-022-00311-w

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